Serbia now has an exceptional policy opportunity to promote skills development and create a productive future workforce and a prosperous economy. With its population aging and the nature of work changing in a technologically transforming and globalizing economy, a highly skilled Serbian...

Because of its difficult starting position in transitioning to a market economy, so far macroeconomic policy in Serbia has mainly been concerned with achieving stability. At the start of its transition in 2001, Serbia was practically bankrupt, burdened with old overdue debt and huge arrears in...

Serbia is not growing as fast it could. Investment and productivity are low and slow growing; and the continuing large role of the state in the economy makes it difficult for the private sector to accelerate economic growth. Serbia is well-positioned to turn itself into a fast-growing,...

This note examines the relationship between the presence of foreign firms and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of domestic firms (called 'FDI, Foreign Direct Investment, spillovers') in Serbia over the period of 2005-16. The analysis finds evidence of FDI spillovers in Serbia. Domestic...

Serbia spends relatively large amounts on state aid programs, many of which will have to be phased out or restructured to comply with EU laws. There is room to restructure the existing programs to target activities that have more growth and job dividends; for example, by targeting startups and...

Addressing Serbia's labor market problems is critical to enhancing growth and job creation. Low labor force participation, relatively high unemployment, particularly among youth and other disadvantaged groups, and rising skills gaps currently impede efficient use of human capital and the...

The diffusion of knowledge plays a central role in endogenous growth theories. Simply put, in these models new knowledge can be generated from preexisting knowledge. In other words, existing knowledge is a pure public good, which can benefit any economic agent anywhere. More generally,...

To analyze the effect of an increase in the quantity or quality of public investment on growth, this paper extends the World Bank's Long-Term Growth Model (LTGM), by separating the total capital stock into public and private portions, with the former adjusted for its quality. The paper presents...

This study conducted a randomized control trial in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact of alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on education, health, and household welfare outcomes. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional or...